Blue Fans, Where are you?

[8inmylife]

Western suburbs of Melbourne boy, grew up a member of the club. Cousin played in the '87 premiership. I believe he should have played in '93 as I think he would have taken out two players the second they took out Mil.

I moved to the US in my 20's. I listened to every game I could live via Internet radio (same radio broadcast as home) and watched whatever televised games I could. Got as many newspapers, etc. delivered as possible to keep up on popular opinion. Had an olllllllllllld BigFooty account from the early days that I can neither remember the username nor the e-mail address subscribed.

Moved back late 2000's. Too late to become a member year one. Signed up as Captains Club the following year. Attended every VIC game from the time I got back until the day I moved to Queensland with the ex. She's a chronic asthmatic and every time we came up here for holidays her health showed marked and immediate improvement. Her company offered her a transfer. She took it. We'd been together several years and marriage, at that time, was looking inevitable so I moved north with her.

The dynamic changed. We lasted 18-months up here. Went to the Blues games that they played up here. I will go to the Gold Coast and Brisbane games up here this year. No longer a Captains Club member. Too expensive for having an inability to attend games.

In many ways I feel like my life has mirrored the Carlton Football Club. Not a perfect childhood but pretty bloody good. Greatest ever memories were created by doing everything possible back in '95 GF week related with Mum including attending the grand final (training, family day, parade, game, evening at Princes Park post GF, etc.). Then s**t hit the fan. My father figure died two weeks after the granny. Lost my first girlfriend, three sports teammates and my coach in a car crash the following year. Dad died in mid '98. Mum took ill less than 2 months later and I gave her 24/7 care until she died in January of '02. She carried with her the fact that Carlton never won a wooden spoon in her lifetime to the grave. And although I've had some positive experiences and done some incredible things that 99% of Aussies would only dream of there's been way more bad than good since.

I'm genuinely considering making the move back down to Melbourne. I know that if I do, I'll support the club in every possible way. If there was anything that I could do to dedicate my life to the club then I'd do it. But I don't know anyone at the club these days. But I'd like to do more than admire them from afar. In some ways I feel its my calling. Mum's family were all die hard Carlton fans. Now it's my turn.

Apologies for the deepness. Writing this got me thinking, reminiscing, feeling, midway through. I miss my family and I miss our success. Carlton's in my blood.

Very touching story. Thanks for sharing and I hope that opening your heart here was in some way helpful for you.

I also hope that you can find an avenue to become involved at the club so the Carlton family can provide you with comfort and meaning going forward.

I’m sure I would speak for all here in sending our best wishes to you.


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Recon_29]

Located in Brisbane, 10 year member & go to every game we play in QLD.

Will also fly to Melbourne at least 4 or 5 times a year (closer to 8-10 times during the 09-11 period) to watch the Blues play and I was born in 89 so have had endured the entire dark years of our club with little to no success, still live off the 99 prelim as my greatest moment as a Carlton supporter. Was at Hobart in the freezing rain earlier in the year, have also flown to Wellington for the ANZAC game and various other grounds. It is disappointing to hear people in Melbourne choosing not to go when there are others like me who regularly travel long distances at great cost to watch the Baggers, but I guess that is a sign of the times after a long period of irrelevance.

 

[1981]

Before I start with my rant, I just want to make a few things clear, which you may agree or disagree:

I believe Patrick Cripps Should be Captain Now, not next year.
I believe Cripps is a better choice than Doc.
The Rebuild is going to take far longer than 66 games.
I'm not sure on Bolton.
I'm not yet sure on Stephen Silvagni's role as list manager, yet. While great at negotiation he keeps picking undersized Mids, and mature age players that have yet to prove there value. Just my opinion.

Anyway, Carlton football Club has 51860 members as I type this.

After just getting Rolled by Richmond in Round 1, there was only 28,000 at the Gold Coast (Home Game) game in round 2.
68,000 against Collingwood Round 3, I would bet at least 40,000 were Collingwood supporters.
28,000 vs West Coast Round 5
only 44,600 vs Essendon in Round 8
44,000 Vs Melbourne Yesterday

I understand that the team is not going great, we have had a lot of injury's, we lack depth and we have a lot of Kids in the team. But when Carlton needs your support the most, where are the diehard Fans, how can we ever expect Carlton to be a powerhouse if nobody is going to show up to the game.

Carlton needs every supporter they can get. There are a few other problems that the club is going to face in the short term, most of Carlton's revenue is Pokie Driven, the AFL is hell bent on removing all pokies from football clubs, this is why I believe Cain Liddle has been brought over from Richmond as he was able to help the tigers make a lot of revenue through Gyms. Where the blues will get there money from is anybody's guess.

Anyway, I have mentioned this issue in the past but I think it is even more relevant now and this is something that needs to be fixed by the club immediately. The Cheer Squad.
If you are a member of the cheer squad you get a reserved seat and guaranteed finals tickets should the blues make the finals. Now I'm not going to bag those who show up week in and week out, and make time to go down to the club to get the banner and other things sorted out, it is a thankless job. I'm going to call out those who don't show up, and don't put the time in. I'm calling out the empty seats I see at every single game. Yesterday I could see more than half the seats allocated to the cheer Squad were empty.

I thought I was looking at the Gold Coast or GWS Cheers squad, it was a horrible sight to see, Imagine how the players feel when they see the support the opposition is getting at the other end. North Melbourne are at the lower levels in terms of membership yet they can fill out 3 bays in there cheer squad, and they do everything big. Imagine how the players feel when they look up and see the pride and passion there supporters have, it just makes you want to try harder for the fans.

The club needs to make a complete overhaul to the cheer squad, 1st they need to eliminate the members who don't show up, they should be able to do this by looking at the memberships and being able to gather data of who goes to the game every week and who does not. They need to advertise to members and create youtube clips to get new members involved, send out an email to the members have a bbq on members nights, get the players to come and say hello. I'm sure they are doing some of those things already but they need to cut the dead wood (only in it for the finals tickets).

As a Carlton supporter I know what it feels like going to work and everybody even those who don't even like football bagging the s**t out of you because Carlton lost again. I seem to cop it every week, but if Carlton is to move forward you can't lose the faith. You need to show up to the game, even when we are losing, I love watching Cripps and Curnow and we have talent coming through, but this process is going to take a long time to change and it starts with the supporters.

I read only the first couple paras of your post. Not out of disrespect but simply as I don't have time to read more.

Bottom line is the club have an amazing recent history of sustained under performance and fans have the right to react however they chose. It's a free country after all.

That's really all there is to it.

The club need to understand if the poor performances continue they will likely lose supporters. That's life.

Little's comments last night about the club taking responsibility is a good sign. Let's hope they also fix things over the coming 2-3 years. That's where it starts and ends.

 

[1981]

Liddle